Letter 738: If someone has already said that a favor can sometimes work to a man's disadvantage, what wonder is it that a...

If someone has already said that a favor can sometimes work to a man's disadvantage, what wonder is it that a kindness should end in harm? Theophilus here is one of those who received a favor but blames it. For in the course of obtaining what he recently wanted, an even greater danger sprouted. Now he runs to Cilicia to unweave a kind of Penelope's web [the famous ruse by which Penelope delayed her suitors by weaving and unweaving a shroud]. He needs your hands to work the loom -- this one is far harder to unravel than hers. He imitates both Penelope and her husband at once. Both options before him are bitter. But since he must endure one of them, he chooses to grapple with Scylla rather than steer his ship into Charybdis.

Εἰ συμφοράν τισιν ὴόη λυσιτελῆσοί τις ἴφησι, τι θαυ- μαστὸν καὶ χάριν ει·ς βλάβην τελευτῆσαί τῳ: Οιόφιλος τοίνυν τῶν τυχόντων μέν ἐστι χάριτος, μεμφομίlιὤ 6i τὴν χάριν ἐκ γὰρ ὧν κατέπραττεν ἃ πρῴην ἠβούλετο κίνδυνος αὐτῶ μείζων ἐξέφυ. κοὶ νῦν ἴδραμεὶι ng Κιλικίαν ἱστόν τινά Πηνελόπης ἀναλύσων. δεῖ δὲ αὐτῷ τῶν σῶν πρὸς τὸν ἱστὸν yitQmv πολὺ γὰρ οὗτος ἐκείνου χαλεπώτερὀ͂ ἀναλῦσαι. μι- μεῖται δὲ ὁμοῦ μὲν τὴν Πηνελόπην, ὁμοῦ δὲ τῆς ΠηνΠόπης τὸν ἄνδρα. πικρὰ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῷ καὶ τἀκιἱ καὶ τὰ ΠΑι. ἀνάγκης δὲ οὔσης ἀνασχέσθαι θάτερα τῇ Σκύuῃ συμπλimαι μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ σκάφος ἐπὶ τὴν Χάρυβδιν ἄγει.